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Quilter Bass Block

#2,961
I finally got to sit mine on top of my 2x10 double stack, and man did it sing. Capping the volume at 400W to match the available wattage, I brought the gain up to about 4.5, and had beefy onstage sound coverage; 2x10 stacks are super nice. Sound engineer plugged in to the line in, and he needed about 10 sec to dial me in to the house. For this one, I had a touch of bass boost, touch of high rolloff on the amp, and fed it my Le Bass pre using clean, dirty, and Hot Fusion, and at times Le Bass bypassed with a Swollen Pickle fuzz thru a Xerograph Deluxe filter controlled with exp pedal. And at other times, a chorus/phaser mix with some octave-up sprinkled in. It was a fun gig sonically heh

This outfit's sound really benefits from the headroom gotten at that setting, yet I still feel like there's more native attack/punch when it gets spanked than in my control group, my trusty MB200. I was playing on a punchy bass, so will need to test this further against the other members of the stable. For my purposes, yes: gimme the punch. So I hope it really is further evidence of the outstanding character of this puppy.
 
#2,963
Can someone comment on the passive vs active inputs? Here's why:

I was testing a new speaker to be used with the BB800, and when I plugged it all together, I was surprised at the lack of low end and punch. I had my pedalboard plugged into the active input. I know what the BB can do, so I wrote it off to speaker placement, as it was all in the middle of the room. But then for some unknown but good reason, I plugged it into the passive input. Boom, there was the Quilter sound back. Awesome.

So what did I experience? I always thought the active input was just a padded-down input, but it must be more than that. I am thinking mismatched ohmage or such, but am looking for an answer more definitive.

Thanks.
 
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#2,965
bdplaid said:
Can someone comment on the passive vs active inputs? Here's why:

I was testing a new speaker to be used with the BB800, and when I plugged it all together, I was surprised at the lack of low end and punch. I had my pedalboard plugged into the active input. I know what the BB can do, so I wrote it off to speaker placement, as it was all in the middle of the room. But then for some unknown but good reason, I plugged it into the passive input. Boom, there was the Quilter sound back. Awesome.

So what did I experience? I always thought the active input was just a padded-down input, but it must be more than that. I am thinking mismatched ohmage or such, but am looking for an answer more definitive.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
According to Quilter the "active" input is just a 10dB pad. I've never liked the padded input on any of the several amps I've had with it. They always seem to suck just a hair of mid sparkle out. I've always suspected though that more than anything else it was just how my brain was dealing with the volume difference.
 
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#2,966
bdplaid said:
Can someone comment on the passive vs active inputs? Here's why:

I was testing a new speaker to be used with the BB800, and when I plugged it all together, I was surprised at the lack of low end and punch. I had my pedalboard plugged into the active input. I know what the BB can do, so I wrote it off to speaker placement, as it was all in the middle of the room. But then for some unknown but good reason, I plugged it into the passive input. Boom, there was the Quilter sound back. Awesome.

So what did I experience? I always thought the active input was just a padded-down input, but it must be more than that. I am thinking mismatched ohmage or such, but am looking for an answer more definitive.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Typically low output from the source. I have hot outputs on my basses and always use the passive input because in my case it stays clean and doesn't get over driven. You could compensate by increasing the gain when using the active input, then bring the master up. I keep my master relatively low and bring it up as necessary. Mine always hits hard with this approach.
 
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#2,968
Hypercaffium said:
I bought mine from Thomann for 499 euros, now it's listed 555 euros.
As much as I love this amp, I don't like the raised price. Not at all. I've done some research and the product is exactly the same. No reason to charge more, in my opinion.
So... take my "boo!" as snarky.
Click to expand...

If you think that is all that factors into pricing, cool. It isn't.

If you've tried it, compared it to the competition and the value isn't apparent, cool again. IMO IME it was an underpriced overachiever to begin with... they'd have to go farther than this to ding the value.
:D

What competes with it and what does that cost?
 
#2,970
I'm new to the Quilter world. Actually have no experience with one; mine comes tomorrow. But regarding the tone of the active vs passive inputs, I believe they have different input impedances. I think that will impact the tone along with the gain.

From the manual:
PASSIVE INPUT: ¼" mono (full gain), 2 meg
ACTIVE INPUT: ¼" mono (-10dB gain), 30K
 
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#2,972
Zbysek said:
Is there somebody here who has had experience with power amps (Sumo or Baby Sumo) from Guitar Sound System? They seem to get good reviews.

How do they compare with BB800? They are on my short list together with Quilter BB800.

I would like to make an informed decision.

Thank you.

Boutique

Boutique
Click to expand...
No experience with either, but it looks like the Sumo is pretty competatively priced and featured with the BB800.
The biggest plus with the BB800 is that it’s a standalone head that sounds great, but you can also run a pre into it and use it as a power amp only, or run your pre into the Quilter pre and get more tones that way.
Versatility is nice.
 
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#2,976
Brad Johnson said:
Typically low output from the source. I have hot outputs on my basses and always use the passive input because in my case it stays clean and doesn't get over driven. You could compensate by increasing the gain when using the passive input, then bring the master up. I keep my master relatively low and bring it up as necessary. Mine always hits hard with this approach.
Click to expand...

This (the bolded part) doesn't sound logical to me. Perhaps you meant "..when using the active input.."?
 
#2,977
shwashwa said:
Is there any danger in doing this? Harming the quilter or the second amp?
Click to expand...

If you plug your bass into passive and run a cable out of the active, you will get a signal, but very week. Just enough to run a tuner or something. Probably not enough juice to act like a line out.

Doing this will also lower your input and change the tone a bit since your are loading the inputs.

Best to use the line out. Get an XLR to 1/4” TRS cable.
 
#2,978
hennessybass said:
If you plug your bass into passive and run a cable out of the active, you will get a signal, but very week. Just enough to run a tuner or something. Probably not enough juice to act like a line out.

Doing this will also lower your input and change the tone a bit since your are loading the inputs.

Best to use the line out. Get an XLR to 1/4” TRS cable.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the great reply. will the signal coming out of the line out be too hot to put into the normal input of another amp?
 

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